Alien: Covenant

A sense of deja vu haunts Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant. Scott's third crack at the saga of the little pop-up monster is engaging and well shot, but lacks any surprises. We know that when Billy Crudup, Katherine Waterston, Michael Fassbender and crew land on a seemingly hospitable planet, little aliens will soon be ripping their ways out of the bodies of the lesser players; and that is exactly what occurs. As in Alien: Prometheus, Scott is attempting to put a new spin on creation myths and, as in the previous film, the result is elegant twaddle.

The cast is not as stellar as ...Prometheus, but all of the above leads have their moments. Danny McBride is largely wasted because humor is not Scott's forte. Crudup's character is said to be devout, but Scott's cinema is not one of ideas, so the ramifications of a man wrestling with his conscience are never explored. Scott's forte is visual spectacle and there is plenty to gawk at here: a scene of apocalyptic destruction calls to mind Scott's Exodus: Gods and Kings. Once again, we feel we have seen this picture before. (11/8/17)